Monday, June 20, 2005

Ottawa Blessing and Curse

Wait. Wait. Wait. The Canadian Parliament – mostly – wants to vote on making same-sex marriage nationwide. The Liberal leaders are introducing a motion to extend this session another day or two to permit voting.

Government House Leader Tony Valeri says all the MPs have made up their minds after months of debate and a couple of years of watching one province after another legalize it.

Conservatives have been stalling and trying to knock back a vote to the fall in hopes of some magic changing the majority's mind.

However, in a delightful wrinkle worthy of New England spite and hate, a priest in Canada is putting the hex on Prime Minister Paul Martin. Following interviews with numerous media:

Father Francis Geremia, a Roman Catholic priest, told his congregation on Saturday that Martin is doing the devil's work on the same-sex marriage bill the Liberal government is trying to pass in Parliament.

He repeated the charge in a telephone interview with The Canadian Press on Monday, saying Martin no longer deserves the sacrament of communion because of Bill C-38.

Martin has said that as a Roman Catholic, he struggled with the issue, but that it's a matter of human rights that he must uphold.

But Geremia says: "you cannot have two faces: either you serve God or you serve the devil."